War's Harsh Price: A Family's Division

War Is Terrible
“Principle, Sam? You may know principle, Sam, but I know war.... It isn’t worth it.” (collier and collier 21) In the book My Brother Sam is Dead, by James and Christopher Collier, Sam, a fiery rebellious college student, wants and later goes to fight against the british for freedom. Mr. Meeker, Sam's father, on the other hand, has experienced war before and knows it is bad. Tim, the narrator, is torn between sides and later in the story decides that neither side is right. Those who pursue war may not realize all the terrible things that come with it. In war there are a lot of bad things that happen to the people who fight in them, like division in families, clash of generations and the disadvantages of war.
Division in families is one effect of war, it causes families to suffer from loss and from disagreement over which side is better. For example in My Brother Sam is Dead, Sam and father had a dispute over the disadvantages of war. “Oh God, Sam fight? Is it worth war to save a few pence in taxes?”(Collier and Collier 21) Father is telling Sam that he wants to fight just because of a couple taxes. This fight causes Sam to go to war and not want to

talk to his father. On top of that, later in the book Father dies and leaves Tim and Mother alone to take care of the tavern. This is saying that war brings hardship for those who have family member that have died. As a result of the loss of father, Tim and Mother have to work extra hard to keep in business and still feed the animals, clean the tavern, and grow the crops. War is never good and causes division in families and clash of generations.
A clash of generations is another thing impacted by war, causing the more experienced older generation to go against the younger more passionate generation. For example, Father in the book is against war and wants nothing with it, while Sam on the other hand wants to be a part of war and wants to fight for the cause of being free. This is stating that the younger adults have not experienced war before and think they can win because they are better. The older adults, however, want nothing to do with war because they have experienced it and know that there is no way they can win against the whole British army. Also according to Mr. Beach the pastor at the redding church says “hot-tempered young men who listen not to the voices of their elders would bring a wrathy God down on their own heads”(Collier and Collier 29) In other words, he is saying that the young men who do not listen to the elders will likely relive what they experienced, which is mostly bad like death. If they keep fighting nothing is going to change because they are trying to fight instead of working it out. In the end war brings a clash of generations and brings different heroic ideals.
War has many disadvantages, it brings death, loss, and sacrifice for a lot of people.

Many people fight in wars and many are lost because of it, and in the book Sam fights for the patriot side. Father tries to warn him about the disadvantages of war but he does not listen. Later, Sam pays the price with his life for being in the war. He sacrifices his life for a cause that could easily be resolved with England without a war. Also, according to Sam, “There’s a lot you do not understand. All of us have seen good friends killed.” (collier and collier 172). This is directly saying that war brings to lots of good people terrible things. And then to the people who are friends or a family members of those people who die it is a major loss. In the end, war brings a lot of bad things like death and

sacrifice.
War is a terrible thing and causes only bad to those who join in and decide to fight for what they believe in. It causes death and a lot of other really bad things. The sacrifice that is needed for war is not worth giving up when you can talk it out instead of fighting it out. Just fighting does not solve the problem; it keeps it going and more conflict arises. In the end the patriots won the revolutionary war but could there have been another way instead of fighting?